The present invention relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to assembly equipment and methods therefor.
In the past, semiconductor assembly equipment manufacturers utilized various methods and equipment to produce tape and reel assembly equipment, such as semiconductor die to tape assembly handlers. Typically a reel containing empty tape positions is mounted onto the handler and the handler inserts a semiconductor die into each empty position and winds the assembled tape onto an empty receiving reel. Such tape and real assembly equipment is well known in the art. One problem with these previous tape and reel handlers was the amount of time required to place an empty real on the handler to receive the assembled tape and the amount of time required to remove a full reel after an assembly run. Typically each receiving reel was capable of holding a length of tape containing three thousand to ten thousand tape positions. Once the reel was full, the handler was stopped, the full receiving real was manually removed, a securing device was manually attached to the wound-up tape, and another empty receiving wheel was manually position on the handler to receive the next length of tape. The full tape exiting the handler was manually inserted into the empty reel so that the handler could wind the full tape onto the reel. All of the manual operation including manually installing and removing the receiving reels increased the time and costs of the assembly process.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a reel assembly method that reduces the amount of time required to install a new empty receiving reel, to remove a full receiving reel, and that reduces the manufacturing cost.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily to scale, and the same reference numbers in different figures denote the same elements. Additionally, descriptions and details of well known steps and elements are omitted for simplicity of the description.